Alexandra Arreola-Vargas Ph.D.

The focus of my research is to elucidate what genes are deregulated as a result of loss or mutation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene. This is done with the aim of understanding what early genetic events following VHL mutation/loss may be responsible for renal cell carcinoma tumorigenesis. To that avail I have also generated a sphere-assay using primary neonatal epithelial kidney cells that will be used to characterize at the cell and molecular level, what cells are more prone to tumorigenic events.